Outside Edge
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Rebecca Adlington, Mansfield's double-gold Olympic hero, is to have a pub and a swimming pool in the town named after her. There is also a website, rebeccaadlington.com, in her name, but not under her control; it seems some cheeky Chinese person registered the domain name before she won gold, and has stuck it up for sale. The Czech composer Peter Breiner also has a beef with Beijing, having noticed that the 200-odd national anthems played at the 2008 Games bore a remarkable resemblance to his own copyrighted arrangements for the 2004 Games. "We found them on the internet," the Chinese organisers explained. You complain about online censorship in China, and look what happens.
2.8m
The population of Jamaica, putting them first in the gold-medals-per-inhabitants table for the Beijing Games, up from 13th in the official table. Bahrain rush up to second from 52nd, GB (4) slump to 13th, and China's 51 golds earn them only 47th place, so the chances of reading this online in China are slim.
Athletic animals of the week
Today sees the grand finale of the Hong Kong Olympets, an animal version of the Beijing thing that attracted more than 400 pets. Rabbit hurdles, parrot rope climbing and hampster ball-racing have all been on the schedule, but dogs dominated the entries. Our attempts to discover the medal tally so far have been unsuccessful, largely because we couldn't be bothered to try, but we hope no British boxers suffered from inconsistent judging.
Good week for
Rosie swale pope, a 61-year-old from Tenby, who completed a five-year, 20,000-mile round-the-world charity walk despite a fractured hip... Stuart Broad, fast bowler, took career-best one-day figures of 5 for 23 as England beat South Africa... and Anne Keothavong, British tennis women's No 1, reached the third round in her US Open debut.
Bad week for
Mushtaq Ahmed, Pakistan and Sussex leg-spinner, forced to retire at 38 with a leg injury... Angel Matos, Cuban former Olympic taekwondo champion, banned for life after attacking a referee in Beijing... Steve McClaren, former England football coach, saw his new side Twente Enschede battered 6-0 on aggregate by Arsenal in a Champions' League qualifier... and Wahanoho, Russian sumo wrestler, given a lifetime ban in Japan for possessing cannabis.
Sitting targets of the week
The aussies whinge that Britons are only good at sports where you sit down. So be it; let's play to our strengths. In our tireless, and possibly tiresome, quest to find new sports for London 2012, we offer you Chair Wars. Position two ramps so that they meet at the bottom. A competitor in an office chair with wheels (minimum three, maximum six) sits at the top of each ramp. At the starter's gun they hurtle down and into each other; the object is to topple your opponent while staying upright yourself. More details at strange-games.blogspot.com. Lottery funding is unlikely, but it's worth a try.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments